Sarpedon’s Tale: Fate or the Gods

Sarpedon was a king from Lycia, today’s southwestern Anatolia. In Iliad, he fought alongside the Trojans, and he became one of the heroes of Trojan War. He is the one who tells off Hector, that Trojans were not fighting the hard battles, and leaving all the fights to the allies of Troy, like Lycians. The Trojans attack the wall that the Achaeans recently built, led by Sarpedon on the front lines. Great Achaean warriors like Ajax and Teucer’s attention turns to his division, which included Glaucus who will be wounded by an arrow fired from Teucer‘s bow.

Sarpedon comes across Patroclus in the battlefield and they met in combat. Just then, Zeus thinks over if he should save his son’s life, even if it means intervening the fate, that Sarpedon would die at the hands of Patroclus. According to the book, he would have eventually done that, if Hera would not come and reminded him that there are far too many sons of Gods, demigods on the battlefield, dying and fighting, and she states that if Zeus protects his son from inevitable destiny, all the immortal gods would like to do so, and that would cause chaos, both in Olympus and in the war itself.

Nevertheless, despite the noble demand of Sarpedon from Glaucus, the Greeks seize the corpse and strip it from his armor to give it to Patroclus. Even though Zeus cannot save his son, he preserves his dead body from Greek ravagers, washes it, rubs it with ambrosia (ritualistic drink of gods), and delivers it to Hypnos (the Sleep) and Thanatos (the Death) that they may carry it to Lycia where his kin and townsfolk will bury it.

Then Zeus weeps a rain of blood, which plays no part in the continuity of the events. Not any of the fighters in the battlefield seem to notice the darkness which falls to the field and the remove of the corpse. As it can be seen, legendary elements like, bloody rains, the darkness falling and that the Apollo’s arrival are subordinated and undermined by the epic chivalrous deeds. This also can lead to a different perspective, which is to be argued in later paragraphs.

What is remarkable here is, Hera’s words, saying “his doom sealed long ago.” regarding Sarpedon. Even if Zeus tries to go beyond the rules of the fate, he does not, by the warning of Hera. However this also can be seen as, Hera’s warning was a part of the fate, and Zeus is never meant to spare his son from the battlefield. The gods, with all their immortality, farsightedness and their might, are subjects to the destiny. This is what happens throughout the book, all the deeds, good and bad things attributed to gods, but every time there is a logical explanation for those occurrences.

As a literary work, Iliad seems to have gods all throughout its pages, however as it is said before, the godly actions are always explainable by logic, and if not, it has nothing to do with the plot. In Sarpedon’s tale, Glaucus was wounded by an arrow, and prays to Apollo to ease his pain and that he can continue fighting according to the will of Sarpedon, and than suddenly his pain is eased, which we can now explain by current science, as adrenaline, not god’s work.

In summary, in Iliad an attitude which is to do with only self purposes influences only the “image” of God. The believer selects a "god" like Achilles selects Athena, that is supposedly related with his powers and his self-image. That leads to the bliss comes from loving Gods, and damnation from non-loving Gods, but in Iliad, people are subject to fate and even if it is not mentioned also Gods; the external control is related to controlling Gods; which is science today, fate in those times and Gods in Iliad.

The easiest of the explanations is this, even those times, without today’s scientific achievements, the fate is seen as the most prominent factor that affects human lives. Gods’ presence in these epics, shows only the lack of science and explanations by a long lasted tradition. Their actions are not effective and their presence is vague. Only the literary supernaturalism makes Hera and Zeus argue about Sarpedon’s life, not that anything will change whatever Zeus decides.